


A Forest

by Tish



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Altered States - Delirium, Gen, Horror - Cosmic Horror, Weather - Semi-sentient mists and fogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:20:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26565022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tish/pseuds/Tish
Summary: If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a great surprise...
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7
Collections: Darkest Night 2020





	A Forest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheseusInTheMaze](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheseusInTheMaze/gifts).



“Mmmm, lush,” Yasmin said as she inhaled deeply. Around her, the forest seemed to glow green and silvery gold as the sun filtered through the leaves of the trees. A gentle breeze sent leaves scattering along the path before her.

“Eh?” The Doctor was too engrossed in examining a crop of mushrooms to look up at Yaz's statement.

“Lush, lovely, fragrant, y'know,” Yaz started, only to give up as the sonic buzzed into life.

She crept up to a tree. Something had caught her gaze and wouldn't let go. Dimly aware of a mist forming around her, Yaz reached the tree and wondered if she actually had seen anything at all as she scanned the area. _Trick of the light_ , she guessed. Her palm suddenly started to itch, so she let go of the branch she'd rested against. An impression of her hand stayed on the moss just for a moment, slowly fading away. She examined her hand, but only saw a slight dusting of green moss there. Absent-mindedly brushing her hand off on her jeans, Yaz turned back, looking over to The Doctor.

She wasn't there.

“Doctor? Did you fall into an alien fairy ring?” Yaz walked back onto the track craning her head round to see.

The sound of the sonic had stopped, and Yaz struggled to remember when she'd last heard it. “Maybe I fell into the fairy ring?”

“Maybe _you're_ the fairy?”

Yaz span round at the voice, letting out an involuntary laugh at the impish voice. “Ah, are we in Scotland? The Doctor, uh, my friend said we were on an ali– somewhere else,” Yaz hastily corrected herself. “Hi.”

The woman suddenly grinned. “And hello to you, too. No, this isn't Scotland, why would you say that?”

“I just assumed from the accent.” Yaz shrugged.

The woman looked confused. “What accent? I don't have an accent, _you_ have an accent.”

“Fair enough,” Yaz conceded. “So, that was you I thought I saw before. This mist is getting bad, I'd better catch up with The Doctor, no fun getting lost in a forest.”

“All alone,” the woman whispered dramatically, slowly swinging behind a tree.

Yaz pulled out her phone and scrolled down. “Not quite, The Doctor's not far. Will you be okay? You really should come with us if the weather's turning bad.”

“You won't get a signal, dearie,” the woman sang out. “Not here.”

Yaz looked at her phone, expecting the TARDIS link to be active, but the signal icon was blank. “Shit. Okay,” she said to herself, then cupped her hands to her mouth. “DOCTOR!”

The words fell flat in the growing mist, almost as if ghostly fingers had reached out and grabbed them, squeezing the life from them.

“Maybe the wolf got your doctor. Was she wearing a red hood?” The Scottish woman pushed a branch up to peer at Yaz quizzically.

“Look, Mary Poppins,” Yaz said, getting exasperated, “I'm not in the mood for mind games. I don't scare that easily.” She moved further along the path, calling out again.

The mist thickened ahead of her, staring to glow with green tendrils. Looking back at the woman, Yaz could swear her eyes glowed with the same intense green.

Her voice rang out clearly, undampened by the fog. “Did you happen to touch the moss, girlie?”

Yaz set her jaw firmly. “What are you implying? And the name's Yasmin.”

“Missy, how d'you do?” Missy stepped out onto the path, hand extended. “Stinging nettles, poison ivy, weirdo wartle – forests have so many dangers. No, they need to build something here to keep all the creepy crawlies away. Oh wait, there it is.”

Yaz turned to where Missy was pointing. “That- that house wasn't there before.”

“Of course it was, you just didn't look.” Now it was Missy's turn to be exasperated.

“No, it wasn't,” Yaz stood firm.

“Oh, yes it was!” Missy exclaimed, hands on hips. She gasped, pointing. “Behind you!”

Yaz span round. Nothing. She looked back with a scowl.

“Sorry. Felt like a bit of Panto,” Missy said, wrinkling her nose playfully. “I'm sure if we go inside, The Doctor's waiting for us. In the library. With a candlestick.”

Yaz stared back. “What?”

“Hmm, haven't got a clue. C'mon, chop chop,” Missy said as she hustled past.

Yaz took a last, reluctant look around the darkening forest, seeing the house and the strange woman as a slightly less unwelcome proposition, but called out again, just in case. “Doctor!”

Again, there was only silence, save for Missy's cheerful humming as she went to the door. Yaz caught up just as Missy raised the brass circle, letting it fall against the plate. The sharp noise set Yaz's nerves on end every time Missy knocked.

“Knock, knock!” Missy called out.

“I think if they didn't hear _that_ , they wouldn't hear your voice,” Yaz pointed out.

“No, I was going to tell a knock-knock joke, but you don't have a sense of humour. Also, I forgot it,” Missy waved her hand as she pushed open the unlocked door.

Yaz rolled her eyes, scratching at her palm. “I must be hallucinating all this. I mean, I expect weird fog and a creepy house, but you? You're enjoying all this, aren't you?”

“Entering the unknown, possible death and mayhem? Of course I'm enjoying it. I just wish I'd thought of it first,” Missy said as she strolled into the lobby.

Flicking on the torch on her phone, Yaz approached an inner doorway. “Hello? Doctor, are you here?”

Missy pointed up the stairs. “Perhaps she went down to the fruit cellar?”

“Cellars are a downstairs thing, Missy.” Yaz pointed down.

“That staircase goes down, you're pointing up,” Missy insisted, still pointing up.

“Look at your hand. Are you pointing up or down?”

“Well now, isn't this peculiar? There must be some sort of Furzian Vorticle Effect going on.”

“Are you sure you're not yanking my chain?”

“No, dear Yasmin. Why, _do_ you have a chain?” Missy leaned in unnervingly close, her breath cold against Yaz's cheek.

Yaz blinked several times, throat dry, and she staggered back slightly. “Don't play games. I mean it.”

“I'm not playing games. We're trapped here together,” Missy's voice was as cold as her breath. “We need each other.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Yaz thought she saw green mist curl in the corner of the room. She turned her phone to it, the torch lighting up the green hands and numbers of the grandfather clock. They stayed glowing as she moved the torch away.

“The clock is moving backwards,” Missy observed. “Or maybe time itself is reversing. Then again, it could be an hallucination.”

“It just started going forward, really fast,” Yaz whispered, eyes searching the darkness.

There was a click, and the room brightened up, nearly making Yaz jump out of her skin.

“That's better. Light switches always come in handy,” Missy said cheerfully as she went to the clock and jabbed a finger in front of the hands.

“Right, the hands have slammed stop now.”

“Curios-er and curios-er,” Missy said as she slowly pulled away her finger. “Still not moving. Up is down, time runs backwards, whatever next? Will your insides end up on the outsides?”

“Don't even joke about that,” Yaz warned.

“I mean, that knobbly little bit right there,” Missy gestured to Yaz's navel. “The belly button thingy, what if I unbuttoned it?”

To Yaz, Missy had moved with lightning speed, and she felt her shirt being ripped with agonising slowness. The sharp pain lasted an eternity as Missy stabbed at her stomach, drawing out her insides. She felt the fires of eternity in her head as black holes spewed out green tendrils into the vastness of space inside – outside – her.

She watched terrified as the universe grew from a cold, wide darkness, collapsing into the white hot fires of the Big Bang. Through her terror, Yaz wept tears of joy at its beauty. She screamed wordlessly in every language invented, deafened by the silence ringing in her ears. Every taste ever known sat upon her tongue, congealing into a musty fungal taste. All the songs and voices of all time and space collided to form a shrill buzz that sounded so alien and so familiar.

“Yeah, don't eat the mushrooms,” said a woman, her voice vaguely near and somewhat familiar. “Oh nooo! Spores. Fungal spores, they're all green and wispy. Just keep walking Yaz, or I can carry you. I'm so sorry, I should have double and tripled checked.”

***

It was warm and cosy, with just enough lighting to make Yaz feel safe and secure. She pulled the soft blanket over her and dozed, vaguely aware of The Doctor brushing a soothing hand over her hair. “She never did finish that knock-knock joke, ” Yaz muttered.

“Who?” The Doctor asked in a whisper.

“Mary Poppins,” Yaz slurred out as she fell into dreams of the cosmos and eternity.


End file.
